Minor hockey has to prevent head injuries, or pay up

A nightmare awaits Canadian minor hockey if officials, volunteers and organizations don’t deal effectively with body checking and head injuries.

In the United States there’s a growing propensity among sports head-injury victims to launch and win huge liability cases that compensate them for brain trauma suffered while playing.

Earlier this month a Colorado state court awarded $11.5 million to a high-school player.

He suffered a serious brain injury during a practice in 2008.

Of particular note, $3.1 million of that compensation was awarded against the manufacturer of the teenager’s helmet.

The court ruled the company was negligent in not fully informing customers of the risk of concussions even while wearing protective headgear.

This follows an $8 million out-of-court settlement for a New York high-school player in 2010.

He suffered paralysis after being injured during a football scrimmage in 2007.

Of particular note, the player’s complaint was that his injury resulted because he was too small to be playing larger opponents. Claims that the player hadn’t received appropriate training and that supervision was inadequate apparently had enough behind them that authorities settled before trial.

Meanwhile, an injury lawsuit filed by thousands of former professional football players gathers momentum. It seeks compensation for concussion-related brain injuries that lead to degenerative diseases, depression and dementia.

Of particular note, the helmet manufacturer is also being sued for allegedly selling poorly designed headgear that provided inadequate protection.

And this class-action suit is all the more fascinating because the National Football League has itself launched a lawsuit against 30 insurance companies.

The NFL complains insurers refused to defend the league against injury suits, which accuse the NFL of failing to adequately inform players of the connection between concussions and degenerative brain changes.

What have the troubles of American football to do with hockey? Look to that insurance development first. Then wonder if perceived liability for brain injuries will logically migrate from football to hockey. It seems likely.

And if hockey organizations haven’t done their utmost both to inform parents and players of the risks, to take reasonable steps to actively minimize concussions and to provide the safest possible playing environment, expect similar financial pain.

Consider the successful $8 million argument that minor football officials were negligent for permitting a small player to compete with larger opponents who injured him.

Medical and brain injury experts have repeatedly urged Canadian minor hockey organizations to cease all league play involving mixed ages under 15 because of the risk to smaller, younger players from bigger, faster, heavier and more mature opponents.

The same experts urge the elimination of all body checking below 15. They argue that the anatomical structure of early adolescents — larger, heavier head and weaker neck muscles — makes them particularly vulnerable to whiplash brain trauma. Statistics bear this out.

This age group is three times more susceptible to such injuries than players over 15.

Yet to write about this is to invite scoffing, condescension, mockery and anger. This response will only earn minor hockey a cruel surprise. Look, it’s not what newspaper columnists say that should concern — it’s what’s already happening legally in the U.S. where major law firms now specialize in sports brain-injury suits.

Minor hockey needs to grow up and hear advice on age-appropriate body checking. It needs a universal national concussion protocol. Instead of leaving minor hockey organizations — often in ignorance or denial, or both — to decide ad hoc what’s appropriate for informing parents regarding risk, educating coaches and players about concussions, and regulating games to prevent brain injury.

"Any type of blow to the head area has the potential to cause severe injury regardless of whether or not a player is wearing a helmet," admits Hockey Canada. "Concussion injuries can cause lengthy loss of playing time and end players’ careers, and recent evidence suggests that the cumulative effects of multiple concussions can have a detrimental effect on the lives of young athletes in the long term."

So, if deliberate blows to the head insult the objective, why not subject them all to immediate ejection and suspension at all levels under Hockey Canada jurisdiction and affiliation from senior hockey to atom.

Checks to the head, hits from behind and intentional boarding, all of which are statistically implicated in most head injuries, deserve the same.

Fighting, which involves deliberate head blows, must go. It should be subject to immediate expulsion at all levels where Hockey Canada has control or influence.

This isn’t rocket science. Social attitudes evolve. The time is coming when dangerous play in hockey must be treated as it is in other sports so Canada’s game can at least answer arguments it hasn’t done enough to ensure safe play.

Either that, or amass a very big kitty to start paying settlements; expect insurance premiums — if you can still get them — to go through the roof and don’t be shocked when big sponsors begin questioning whether they still wish to be associated and recruitment nosedives.

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Minor hockey has to prevent head injuries, or pay up

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